Three key political moves this morning

Secretary of State Matt Schultz showcases a new voting app with Governor Branstad (file photo)

A number political pronouncements have been made this morning.

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican, held a news conference in Council Bluffs to announce he’s running for congress. He’s seeking the third district seat after Republican Congressman Tom Latham abruptly announced he would not run for reelection in 2014.

With that shift from Schultz, former Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced he would run for the job again. Pate, a Republican, is a former eastern Iowa legislator and mayor who owns a paving company in Cedar Rapids. He served one term as secretary of state, in the late 1990s.

Finally, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Ottumwa eye doctor who’s been director of the Iowa Department of Public Health for the past three years, has resigned from her post and is likely to run for congress. Miller-Meeks, a Republican, has run twice before, losing to Democratic Congressman Dave Loebsack in 2008 and 2010. She would face a primary, as Mark Lofgren of Muscatine, a Republican state legislator, is already running in the district.